


The One Where Alya Has Had Enough

by AllTheCatsJoinIn



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alya tries to be a better friend, Angst, Bullying, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Lila salt, Matchmaker Alya Césaire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28663053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllTheCatsJoinIn/pseuds/AllTheCatsJoinIn
Summary: Alya is tired of watching the world dump on her best friend, and decides to do something about it.  Has she bitten off more than she can chew, or will she outfox them all?Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug or any of the characters or unique concepts from the show.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Kagami Tsurugi, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Comments: 21
Kudos: 227





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is something that was banging around in my head. I'm struggling with it because I don't have the entire plot mapped out, but I fell in love with the first part and decided maybe posting it would help me get the inspiration/motivation to finish. That said, no promises on when it will be done; my life is crazy and I can't maintain a regular posting schedule for anything that isn't complete (why I normally wouldn't post something that was incomplete). Sorry in advance.  
> Tags will be updated as I work on this!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya watches Marinette spiraling and has totally had enough. She realizes she needs to do something to help her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is some mild language in this story (thus the teen rating).

Alya watched Marinette cry, sitting on her chaise in her bright pink room after school, and decided. She was done. She was done watching Marinette cry, she was done watching Marinette mope, she was done watching her BFF be unhappy over the ridiculously oblivious Sunshine Boy. 

It had been months since the New York class trip, since Marinette had finally been forced to admit that she loved Adrien. With that realization, her stutter had somehow disappeared, and she’d finally been able to talk and act almost normal around him… and it hadn’t mattered, because right after that Adrien asked Kagami out on their first official date (Alya supposed maybe the ice rink had been a date, but she wasn’t counting it since Marinette had been there too). It was so depressing, Alya had thought that was rock bottom for her friend, but as it turns out, nope, that really wasn’t. The next few months kept getting worse. 

It was worse because she had to watch Marinette go through all the stages of grief trying to get over a boy who’d never admitted he liked her as more than a friend (even though he obviously did), all while trying desperately to hide her feelings from said boy because _her being unhappy would upset him_. Alya helped Marinette tear down all of her Adrien posters, pictures, and erase him from her schedule. She tried to get Marinette to burn it all, but Marinette apparently wasn’t into that kind of catharsis, so it went out anticlimactically with the recycling instead. They changed her screen saver and donated all of the (so many) gifts Marinette had made for Adrien because Marinette couldn’t help herself, she made things for people she loved, and she loved Adrien with her whole crazy giant heart and had for _years_. Alya watched Marinette break things off with Luka before they really started, even though she liked him and he adored her, because Marinette couldn’t be with Luka while she was mourning Adrien. And then Alya had to watch Adrien be _sympathetic and comforting_ to Marinette because he thought she was sad about Luka. Alya had almost murdered him at that point; it was a good thing for Sunshine Boy that Nino was there to hold her back that day. 

It was worse because since Adrien and Nino were best friends, Alya and her boyfriend had repeatedly gotten roped into double dates with Adrien and Kagami. And they. Were. Horrible. The two socially inept teens made awkward conversation, Adrien would occasionally crack jokes that Kagami didn’t laugh at, and then they’d randomly engage in occasional super awkward unexpected PDA that made Alya want to vomit. She might be a little biased because, hello, Marinette’s BFF, but seriously, even Nino admitted it was bad. She got that they had a lot of things in common, but seriously, there was like zero chemistry there. If they’d been anyone else, they would have realized that a while ago and moved on, but since it was Sunshine boy and emotionally stunted ninja girl (she still hadn’t come up with a good nickname, mostly because just about everything that occurred to her sounded too spiteful even in her own head), Adrien and Kagami kept dating. It was infuriating, and it was worse because of her forced front row seat.

It was worse because she had to watch the way Adrien’s eyes continued to light up every time he talked to Marinette, especially since she’d finally stopped acting like a spaz and reined in her more stalkery fangirl tendencies, and the way Marinette’s eyes sparked and then dimmed every time she saw Adrien coming. It was awful because she had to listen to Adrien whine to Nino and herself every time Marinette wasn’t around about why Marinette seemed to be avoiding him, and she couldn’t say anything, because she knew Marinette wouldn’t want her to. It was worse because she had to watch as Marinette continued to befriend Kagami, which included listening to her plan and discuss her dates with Adrien. At this point, every time Marinette called her in tears, it was a toss-up on whether she’d just talked to Kagami, or whether Lila had done something awful again.

It was worse because Lila had started picking on Kagami every chance she got, mostly by trying to spread awful rumors about her to their classmates, hoping they would get back to Adrien. Marinette had defended Kagami, of course, meaning that now Lila was attempting to bully both of them, though her attempts to do so with Marinette were…oddly restrained given the lengths she’d previously shown she was willing to go to. 

Alya was still embarrassed about how long it had taken her to see through Lila. It was actually some of the truly awful things Lila had tried to get their classmates (and Alya) to do to Kagami on some of their group outings that had finally clued Alya in on how fake Lila’s niceness really was. Once she saw it, she couldn’t un-see it, and after that it was a hop, skip and a Google search to realize that Lila was full of shit. Alya still felt stupid. She’d been apologizing to Marinette for _weeks_ and she still didn’t feel okay; thinking about how she’d defended Lila and all of the ways she’d let down her best friend made her feel dirty. Lila had almost gotten Marinette _expelled_ and while Alya had stood by her, she was ashamed to admit there was a tiny sliver of doubt that had wormed its way into her brain about the whole thing for a while. Alya was still trying to figure out how to get revenge on Lila. She couldn’t talk to Marinette about it, because she was aware that Marinette was trying to take the high road and rise above it, and Alya definitely didn’t want to be the one to rain on that parade. She also knew she’d have to be careful since she didn’t want a repeat of the Marinette expulsion fiasco. Lila was a terrible person, but she was clearly good at lying. Alya still hadn’t been able to convince any of her other classmates that Lila was a liar; she had them all under her spell, and the few times she’d tried to urge them individually in private to question her stories, it had almost blown her cover. The only one she’d been able to convince was Nino. Alya realized that her best chance for a Lila take down was to keep seeming as snowed under as everyone else, so while she had apologized to Marinette profusely in private, and now backed her up as much as she could in class, she was trying to do it in a way that kept Lila in the dark about her true motivations. It was starting to drive her a little crazy.

And it was worse watching as Adrien, who clearly also knew Lila was a pathological liar, stood by and did… nothing. He also encouraged Marinette to do nothing. While that wasn’t exactly surprising coming from the Sunshine child, it still made Alya’s blood boil every time he watched Lila being slyly spiteful to Marinette without doing anything about it or speaking up to defend her. 

And on this particular day, it was worse for all of those reasons. Marinette had cried on her in the bathroom for fifteen minutes during first period after seeing Adrien blowing a kiss to Kagami on his video call and talking about their next date. Then Sabrina, Lila’s new sycophant after Chloe was sent to boarding school, had tripped Marinette on her way back to her seat, and Lila had made a spiteful remark about her puffy eyes and runny nose, Adrien had looked away (in what Alya was sure Marinette would interpret as disgust at her appearance, not noticing his sad, sympathetic eyes or white knuckled fists), and Marinette had run out of the room _again._ Alya had then missed half of second period trying to convince her to calm down and come back to class. They both got a detention for missing so much of the class, which of course just made the heaviness in her friend’s eyes that much worse. Then, Lila had been all over Adrien at lunch, cooing about their latest photo-shoot and how they looked so cute together, while Adrien said… you guess it, nothing. Luckily, that only lasted until Kagami showed up to drag him away, but then she had to listen to all their classmates commiserate with Lila about how Kagami ‘stole’ Adrien while Marinette rolled her eyes and mutilated her sandwich. And then after school (and detention), Alya and Nino got yanked into a double-date with, yep, Adrien and Kagami, watching helplessly as Marinette walked past them and halfway down the street towards her house before breaking into a run, probably in tears again. And then she got to listen to Adrien complain about how disappointed he was that Marinette didn’t want to go to the movies with all of them (so she could watch Kagami aggressively holding his hand and making attempts to engage in PDA which he didn’t notice, because he was watching the movie, and let’s face it, _they had no chemistry!!!_ ). The mental exclamation points scrolling across Alya’s brain were probably a bit much, but at this point, she couldn’t help it. Alya was done.

Grabbing Nino’s hand, she rushed out of the theater, taking deep breaths. She saw a black butterfly flapping towards her and jumped on Nino. While he was surprised, luckily the laid back dude was cool enough to go with it, and soon they were making out intensely enough that when Alya heard the scream of someone else getting Akumatized, she jumped in surprise. Nino glanced at her with raised eyebrows and she grinned, shrugging sheepishly.

Pulling out her phone, she activated the Akuma alert she’d added to the Ladyblog, hoping that Ladybug and Chat Noir could respond quickly. She turned to head down the street towards the action, only to almost get bowled over by Chat Noir as he bounded down from the roof of the movie theater. Alya grinned, livestreaming, and looked around for Ladybug as she followed him a bit more slowly. Nino walked with her, hands in his pockets and a worried frown on his face. He’d learned a while ago that he couldn’t stop her, much as he might want to sometimes, and now just did his best to protect her whenever they were together during an attack.

“I am Bedtimer, and you’re up past your bed time!”

The Akuma victim, another fashion disaster in a purple, green and red costume, was clearly a frazzled parent on their last gasp trying to make their kid go to bed. Alya cursed Hawk Moth mentally again for using people’s emotions to turn them into monsters. She and Nino dodged the sand Bedtimer was flinging just in time, watching as a couple of pedestrians walking behind them slumped immediately to the sidewalk, sleeping. Alya and Nino took cover behind a car and Alya kept filming as Ladybug showed up, the two super heroes attacking and dodging as they tried to figure out where the Akuma was hiding. Ladybug had just used her Lucky Charm to conjure a black-spotted red water bottle when she slipped and got sprayed right in the face with the magic sand. 

“No!” Chat cried, grabbing her and jumping behind a car that was coincidentally close to Alya’s. She watched tensely as Chat glanced back and forth from Ladybug to the Super Villain a few times before his face brightened. Then he immediately frowned, and seemed to be debating with himself. Alya screamed, “Chat, if you have an idea, no time like the present! She’s coming!”

Unfortunately, this caused her to be sprayed with sand, but the last thing she saw before she was knocked unconscious was Chat’s face descending towards Ladybug with puckered lips. Alya fell asleep grinning.

A few seconds later she was woken up by a kiss from Nino (okay, maybe this wasn’t the worst day ever!) just in time to watch (and film) Ladybug dump water into the bowl of sand to prevent the Akumatizied villain from attacking as Chat cataclysmed the reading glasses perched on her forehead. 

Alya immediately rushed over and held up her phone, asking the heroes, “Ladybug and Chat Noir, by my count this is the third time Chat has used true love’s kiss to break Akuma magic affecting Ladybug, and twice that Ladybug has done so for Chat. Are you finally ready to admit you have feelings for each other?”

They immediately blushed and looked away from each other. Interestingly, whereas the first time this happened, Chat was smiling and teasing Ladybug, now he suddenly seemed just as disconcerted as she did, and they were both vehemently denying they had feelings for each other, claiming that their love was totally platonic. Huh. Maybe this was the worst day ever. ‘My ship!!!’ Alya wailed internally, sensing it was less likely that ever that these two oblivious idiots would figure out their feelings any time soon. She sighed.

Walking home later with Nino after saying goodbye to Adrien and Kagami, who strangely had gotten separated during the attack again, Alya kept sighing. Finally, about halfway home, she stopped, stomped her foot, and turned to Nino. “That’s it, I’m done!” she exclaimed.

“What’s wrong?” Nino asked, not privy to how shitty this day had been for her. Alya had been trying not to dump all of Marinette’s emotional damage on him, since she didn’t want to hurt his friendship with Adrien, but enough was enough. She needed to do something, and she realized she was going to need his help.

“We need to help Marinette.” She ticked off on her fingers. “We need to stop enabling Adrien and Kagami, cause _eww_! We need to help Ladybug and Chat Noir figure out how much they love each other. And we need to take down Lila once and for all.”

Nino, clearly uncomfortable, was rubbing his neck, a habit he’d picked up from the Sunshine Boy.

“Eh, I’m not sure about that… I mean, helping Marinette, I’m happy to help her!” he added, seeing Alya start to glare. “I just… don’t want to be the reason Adrien and Kagami break up. I don’t think my bro would really forgive that, you know? I’m not really sure how you’re going to make LB and Chat love each other… And I’m not sure about taking Lila down, dudette; that might not go down how you think. I don’t want you to get expelled. Or me, I don’t want to get expelled either, babe. I really doubt my bro is going to be able to convince Lila to get me back into school like Marinette if that happens.”

Alya stared at him with her mouth open, and Nino smacked his forehead. “I mean… I mean… shit. Please forget I said that!” he begged with no hope in his voice, knowing that was the last thing his girlfriend was likely to do.

Sure enough, she was already staring at him with an evil delighted smirk growing across her face. He swallowed as she demanded, “What did you say? Adrien did what?!?”

Nino was silent for a moment as she crossed her arms and stared at him. She didn’t even have to say anything, they were having a silent conversation about what would happen if he chose not to answer, until finally he hung his head and caved. “You heard me, Als. Adrien got Lila to admit she lied, and get Marinette back into school, in return for being her friend.”

Alya stared at him while her brain whirred, processing this incredibly interesting information. “You’re telling me Sunshine Boy bribed the Liar to get Marinette, whom she hates, back into school? That explains so much… for starters why even though Lila’s been low level nasty to Marinette ever since, she’s never openly gone after her again, even though she obviously wants to.”

Alya grinned, then her eyes lit up. “Oh my God, that’s why Adrien hasn’t said anything! Yes! Thank God, I was really beginning to think he just didn’t have a spine.”

Nino nodded miserably, realizing he’d totally just betrayed a confidence, but figuring he’d better make the most of it. “Yeah, he can’t stand Lila, he just doesn’t have a choice. If he lets on that he doesn’t like her, she could do something evil to Marinette again. Adrien was really torn up about Marinette getting expelled – he won’t risk Lila hurting her again.”

“Wow… So Adrien knows Lila lied to get Marinette expelled… we can use that. Oh yes…” Alya rubbed her hands together, starting to look gleeful. Nino gulped. 

“Here’s what we’re going to do…”


	2. Chapter 2

The next couple weeks, Alya was mysteriously busy. She still made sure she had plenty of time to provide a shoulder for Marinette, because the last thing she wanted was for her BFF to suffer while she was trying to help her, but they did a lot of video calls and Alya always rebuffed Marinette’s questions about what she was working on with vague answers about new material for her blog.

Finally she was done. Thursday after class, Nino grabbed Alix and led her to the art room, where Alya shut the door before slamming a very large binder down on the desk dramatically. “Alix, we need to talk about Lila.”

Before she could continue, Alix smirked and started a sarcastic slow clap, coming up to leaf casually through the binder. “Wow, Césaire, finally figured it out, huh? God, it took you long enough.”

“Huh?” Alya demanded intelligently, staring at the short, pink-haired skater girl. Alix chuckled and rolled her eyes, then took mercy on her and explained, “I realized Lila was full of shit months ago. I’ve just been hanging back because it seems like Marinette wants to leave her alone instead of confronting her or exposing her now. I was worried that if I said something without anyone to back me up, that I’d make it worse for Marinette, especially since Lila seems to be leaving her mostly alone since the expulsion got reversed. You don’t have to talk to Nathaniel either; it took a while, but he’s convinced now too. He’s the only one I’ve talked to, though; Max and Kim are too far under her spell, and everyone else would either be too obvious about it if I convinced them she was a liar, or wouldn’t be able to keep it to themselves.”

Alya was nodding and started to smile a little, though she was now looking a little sheepish. “Thanks Alix, that’s great. I agree, we need to be really careful about who we talk to next. I think, maybe next we should try to talk to Kitty Section when they’re all together, and Mylène is there too. That will cover enough people that we’ll have the majority of the class on our side, and we won’t have to worry about Rose spilling the beans before we’ve convinced enough people. Plus, Luka will be there, and he’ll be on our side with how he still feels about Marinette. Once we’ve convinced them, that should be enough people that we can move forward with the plan and make sure no one gets caught in the Lila backlash.”

Alix started to grin evilly, asking, “What is your grand plan, Césaire?”

An hour later, Nino was sweating bullets while the girls shook on it and parted at the door. “I hope this works, Als…” he warned nervously. 

Alya smirked at him and announced confidently, “Oh, it’s going to work. And I can’t wait to see the look on her face when it does…”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday afternoon was the next scheduled Kitty Section practice. Alya had asked around and made sure that Marinette and Adrien would not be there, but Ivan’s girlfriend would be. She felt positively gleeful as she met up with Alix, the two girls getting a short nod from Luka as they stepped onto the houseboat in front of the tall, blue-haired guitarist.

He led them to the bow where the band was setting up. Tapping the microphone Rose had just connected, he smiled at everyone before saying briefly, “Alya and Alix have something they want to talk to us about before our practice today. I think it’s important and I hope you’ll listen to them.”

Everyone perked up, curious about what would provoke that serious tone from Luka, who was typically very Zen. Alya stepped up to the microphone and made eye contact with Ivan, Mylène, Rose, and Juleka in turn. “We need to talk about Lila.”

Rose spoke up, literal hearts in her eyes, “Does she need something? Is everything okay, Alya?”

Alya sighed, realizing all over again that this was going to be an uphill battle.

“No, everything is not okay. Lila is a liar and a bully, and she’s hurting our friends.”

Rose and Mylène gasped audibly, looking angry and shocked, but Juleka just frowned. Juleka had heard about Lila a few times from Luka after she’d been mean to Marinette, and was conflicted about what was going on. Alya would have confronted her first, actually, because she was pretty confident she could easily convince her, but she knew Juleka would never keep something like that from her best friend Rose. This was a problem, because Rose had bought Lila’s act hook, line, and sinker, and was also really bad at keeping secrets. That was why it was imperative that she convince her classmates today, and then that they move to the next stage of the plan quickly, before Rose had a chance to slip up and warn Lila.

“Alya, how could you say something like that?” Rose demanded, sounding outraged. “Lila does so much charity work, even though she has so many health problems, and she is so nice, she has so many friends! How could she do all those things and be friends with so many important people if she was… what you said? She’s constantly offering to help everyone in our class, how could you even say that about her?” Rose asked, tears in her eyes. Juleka put an arm around her, but otherwise didn’t move, waiting, and everyone else was staring at Alya with various expressions of surprise and concern.

Alix stepped in. “Rose, I know it’s hard to hear, but Lila is full of shit. Has any of the ‘help’ she’s offered ever actually gotten you anywhere?”

“Well no… but I’m sure that’s just because the people she knows are so important. It’s no wonder they don’t have time to help us, we’re not important like her.”

“Haven’t you noticed that her ‘health issues’,” Alya said with air quotes, “are constantly changing?” She opened the binder, and took out a calendar page with dates for the last month as rows and pointed as she talked, “Three weeks ago, she told us she had arthritis in her left knee so she couldn’t run in P.E. Then two days later, she said it was in her right knee and that was why she couldn’t do the relay race. Two weeks ago, she said she had tennis elbow in her right elbow and couldn’t carry her books or her lunch tray. Then a day later she played badminton in P.E. with no problem when she got Adrien as a partner, even though she was serving with her right arm the whole time. She’s claimed tinnitus in either ear, depending on which day you ask, and this is a list of her other health problems I’ve heard her claim in the last three weeks,” holding up a list with at least twelve items before their astonished eyes, “to get out of various activities or homework, some of which should be seriously debilitating with obvious side effects. If she’s not lying about any of this, she’d be the unhealthiest young person I’ve ever met, and she should probably be bedridden.”

Rose blinked at her for a moment before saying defensively, “None of that proves she’s lying, Alya. It’s really insensitive to criticize someone for being sick! How could you be so mean?”

Alya sighed and tried a different approach. “Okay, how about this? Lila’s mom isn’t an ambassador. She’s an aide.”

Rose shrugged and explained, “I’m sure she just wanted to impress us, so she exaggerated. It’s scary to move schools and she probably just really wanted to make friends.”

Alya sighed and decided to bring out the big guns. “Rose, you’re still talking to Prince Ali, right?”

Rose nodded, looking curious and concerned. Alya continued gently, “Has he ever mentioned his work on environmental issues to you?”

Rose frowned and shook her head. “No, we’ve always talked about his work with children’s hospitals. He’s very focused on making sure sick kids have the resources they need to get well again,” she said, glowing briefly as she thought about her idol, before continuing in a more subdued voice, “But we don’t talk that often; he’s very busy. It’s possible he’s just never mentioned that particular interest to me.”

Alya raised an eyebrow and retorted softly, trying to be gentle but firm, “Rose, there is no record anywhere of Prince Ali being involved in charitable environmental efforts. There’s no evidence that anything Lila has said about working with him is correct. The only thing we have that might support her story is the Skype sessions we did with her where she told us she was in Achu. I wanted to be thorough, so I took those recordings and reviewed them, and I’m very sure they could have been faked. There are never any actual people in her backgrounds – they could easily be green screens. And actually, that’s the most likely explanation; I thought it was weird even at the time that a couple of times she was standing in front of major landmarks, but there were no people. I don’t think Lila ever left Paris. I think she was here the whole time, just not going to school because she didn’t feel like it.”

Rose’s mouth was hanging open as she tried to process Alya’s words. Alix was nodding supportively. “She’s lied to Nath and me as well. She promised us both to hook us up with people she knows a few times, and it always falls through. She’s a fake, Rose. A total phony.”

Rose’s eyes welled with tears. “She can’t be… Why… Why would she do that?”

Alya looked at her and said gently, “Because it impressed you. Lila likes to have power, and her lies give her power over all of you. How many times have you carried her books, or done her homework, or bought her lunch over the last year? Her lies have gotten her closer to Adrien, the guy she wants to date, too, and she’s using him to get the attention she craves.”

Everyone looked up, appearing surprised, and Nino nodded supportively, finally speaking up. He hadn’t wanted to participate in any of this, but he knew he couldn’t sit on the sidelines while the girls did this either; he’d never hang Alya out to dry like that. Girl was crazy like a fox, but she was his crazy fox. “It’s true, dudes. My bro can’t stand her. He’s only putting up with her so she leaves Marinette alone.”

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and Rose started crying. Juleka pulled her close to comfort her, while Ivan and Mylène stared at each other for a few minutes, having a silent conversation, before they both nodded and turned back to Alya. Mylène said hesitantly, “Thank you for telling us the truth, guys. But what do we do now? We can’t keep letting Lila get away with this, but she’s dangerous. I don’t want her to try to hurt any of us the way she hurt Marinette.”

Alya smiled at them, and said, “I’m glad you asked…”

They never actually got around to band practice that day, but by the time they went home, everyone had at least one job, a timeline, and a mutual goal.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nino's part; or, Nino's in the hot seat and he does his best

Nino was sweating through his shirt. He’d talked with Alya about the conversation he was about to have with Adrien for at least an hour, and while he finally agreed that it wasn’t a betrayal of the bro code or of Marinette to do this, he was still nervous. Adrien was the first real guy friend he’d had in quite some time, and he didn’t want to screw up a friendship he valued. At the end of the day, even though he agreed with Alya that Adrien and Kagami were really (really) wrong for each other, he was more aware than his girlfriend that Adrien needed to see that for himself before he would end things. However, if there was something he could do to move that realization along… well… that was probably in his bro’s best interest. Marinette might love him, but she wasn’t going to wait forever for Adrien to pull his head out of the sand and realize how much he liked her. Nino would hate for his friend to miss out on the chance for something real with a great girl who truly loved him, instead of dating him for his perfect image.

Adrien arrived promptly fifteen minutes before class, and after a quick greeting, Nino led him up the steps and into the empty classroom. 

“Hey bro, can we talk?”

“Sure?” Adrien frowned at him, confused. Nino gulped.

“So, if you were stranded on a desert island, and you could only bring one person with you, who would it be?”

Adrien hummed and rubbed his chin. Nino saw a thought swim through his eyes that seemed to make him sad. “I don’t know… I can only pick one?”

Nino shrugged and replied, “Yeah, who would you pick?”

Adrien shrugged, frowning. “I’m not sure, really. Why?”

Nino sighed. “Not Kagami?”

Adrien raised his eyebrows. “Would you want to be stuck on a desert island indefinitely with only Alya for company?”

Nino shrugged and said, “If I had to pick one person? Yeah, dude. Even though she’d probably drive me crazy if she didn’t have anything to report on.” They shared a laugh.

“Okay, who do you think about before you go to bed?”

Adrien frowned at him again and hedged, “I don’t know, I think about a lot of things before I go to sleep.”

“When you wake up?”

“Same…”

Nino sighed and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose nervously. “Look dude, this is kind of awkward, but I feel like I should talk to you about it.”

Adrien nodded encouragingly, still looking a little confused. Nino gulped again and suggested, “It just seems like… Maybe Kagami isn’t right for you. Not that I don’t like her,” he said, raising his hands defensively at Adrien’s lowering brows.

“She’s… Well, she’s a great girl. It’s just, it doesn’t really seem like your heart is in it, you know, dude? And I’m not sure hers really is either. You guys just kind of seem like you’re going through the motions, because you both want to be dating someone.”

Adrien frowned, looking away. “I do like Kagami. There are a lot of things I admire about her. It’s just hard… I don’t love her, but I was hoping, maybe if I threw myself into it, maybe over time my feelings would grow. I _want_ to love her.”

“Why?” Nino asked, genuinely confused.

“Because it would be easy,” Adrien confessed, cheeks burning a little. “Easy, and safe. I like her, and I know she likes me. I just thought… it would be so nice to be with someone who liked me.”

“Dude…” Nino breathed, feeling a little floored by his bro’s obliviousness. “You realize that like, most of the female population of Paris likes you. And probably a lot of the guys, too.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “Not just my face, Nino, she likes _me_.”

“Lots of people like you, dude. You’re a great guy.”

“Fewer than you’d think,” Adrien muttered, toying with his pencil.

“I know that’s not true. Everyone likes you! You’re one of the nicest people I know.”

Adrien smiled at Nino, though his eyes were still sad. “Thanks man. I think you’re a little biased, though. There are definitely girls who wouldn’t date me.”

“Who?” Nino asked, now curious about why Adrien seemed to have someone specific in mind.

Adrien hesitated, clearly not willing to say the first name that popped in his head. After a minute, he offered, “Marinette definitely wouldn’t. Half the time she runs away as soon as she sees me coming, or starts babbling that she doesn’t like me.”

Nino resisted the urge to face palm. Seriously, the weeb had watched more anime than like anyone else he knew, and yet still seemed oblivious to the ridiculously obvious trope Marinette couldn’t seem to help falling into around him. He sighed. 

“You do realize she just does that because you make her nervous, right? She doesn’t mean it.”

“Then why does she keep saying it?”

“Because you make her nervous…”

“Because she doesn’t like me!”

This time Nino did face palm. Sighing in exasperation, he asked, “Adrien, if she didn’t like you, why would she have argued for you to get to go to New York with the class? Why did she have your pictures all over her walls? Why does she still have the lucky charm you gave her? Why does she always go out of her way to help you whenever she can?”

“Because she’s a nice person, Nino.”

“Do you see her treating Lila like that?”

“No…”

“That’s because Marinette _doesn’t_ _like_ _Lila_.”

Adrien rubbed the back of his neck, apparently deep in thought. Nino held his breath. “So… She does like me?”

Nino nodded vigorously. “She thinks you’re great. Trust me bro, I’d know if she didn’t like you. She’s not that good at keeping secrets. You make her nervous, but she does like you.”

“She took down the pictures?” Adrien asked randomly, blinking innocently at Nino.

“Ah… well… She said it felt weird to have pictures of someone else’s boyfriend on her walls. She took them down when you started dating Kagami,” Nino improvised, happy he didn’t actually have to lie.

“Oh,” Adrien responded, forehead smoothing out though he looked kind of sad. “That makes sense.” 

Nino shrugged and nodded. Luckily at that point, Alix and Nathaniel wandered into the classroom, giving Nino an excuse to change the subject. He figured he’d planted about all the seeds he could manage anyway; he was fortunately not in charge of the rest of the plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Nino = ) He just wants all his friends to be happy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Marinette protection squad! Also, Alya and Nino are boycotting Adrien’s dates (remove the buffer!).

Marinette noticed something funny over the next few weeks. Suddenly, from the time she stepped onto school grounds, to the moment she left every day, she was never alone. Oddly, she seemed to run into some of her classmates much more than she ever had before. It was particularly striking that it wasn’t just Alya or Nino by her side, but Nathaniel suddenly needing her opinion on his new comic, Ivan wanting to run some song lyrics by her, Mylène wanting her to explain how she kept her macaroons from being too greasy, or Rose and Juleka suddenly wanting to know all about what she planned to post to her website next, and whether she needed any modeling. She started to notice particularly once she realized that classmates who were never late were suddenly waiting around for her to arrive in the morning, or that as soon as she asked to go to the bathroom, one of the other girls’ hands would immediately shoot up to go with her. It was like her friends were worried to let her walk around alone at school. While it was sweet, and on one hand she was touched by their apparent concern for her well-being all of a sudden, on the other it was becoming a problem when she had to sneak away to transform. She’d had to get more and more creative to get away without rousing suspicion.

She couldn’t help but wonder what had prompted their sudden concern for her, and if it had anything to do with the extra layer of, well, extra, that Alya seemed to be displaying lately. Her friend had always been a little intense, but for the past few weeks she’d been taking it to a whole new level. Marinette was starting to get concerned, particularly since Alya refused to tell her what was going on. Nino was acting cagey too, though unfortunately he’d known Marinette long enough that he could tell when he needed to escape so she couldn’t corner him and demand answers.

That wasn’t the only thing, either. Marinette had noticed that lately whenever Lila started to say anything to or about Marinette, one of her classmates would immediately interrupt. Lila hadn’t been able to actually insult Marinette for several weeks now, and the bluenette could tell that it was really starting to steam her up. Marinette was deriving a perverse pleasure in watching the liar’s face turn colors every time one of her classmates forced her to swallow an insult or turn away without being able to do something nasty to her intended target. She’d noticed that Lila’s façade of sugary sweetness was starting to crack when this happened.

Another weird thing she’d noticed was how Alya and Nino were acting with Adrien. While of course they were still nice to him, they’d started claiming to be busy when he tried to invite them on dates with him and Kagami. They also started interrupting him or distracting Marinette any time Adrien tried to talk about his dates with her, behavior that made her feel guilty even while she felt grateful. She knew that as a good friend, she should be doing whatever she could to encourage Adrien’s happiness, but honestly, not having to listen to him talk about his love life was really helpful for her peace of mind. She just hoped this didn’t damage their friendship, or make for awkwardness between the four of them. Luckily Adrien, being the sweet guy that he was, didn’t seem to notice much, at least at first.

Of course, that couldn’t last.

Thursday, Adrien grabbed the three of them before they could leave. “Hey guys, do you want to go see that new action movie tomorrow?”

Alya and Nino shared a speaking glance before Alya said, unsubtly, “Were you planning to get a group together?”

“Yeah, I thought I could bring Kagami, too. We could all go!” Adrien replied sunnily, smiling at Marinette hopefully. Her heart sank like a stone, but before she could reply and commit herself to an evening of torture, Alya spoke up again.

“Sorry Sunshine, Marinette and I have plans tomorrow.”

“Oh, well… Nino, do you want to come with us?”

Nino raised an eyebrow at Adrien and replied drily, “Sorry bro, but I don’t really want to be a third wheel on your date.”

“Nino, it wouldn’t be like that, it’s just friends hanging out!”

Nino turned his incredulous bark of laughter into a cough and said, “Uh, actually bro, I can’t anyway, I’m supposed to watch Chris. My parents are going out.”

Adrien’s face fell, then immediately brightened. “That’s okay, we could go Saturday instead. Would that work for you?”

Nino and Alya looked at each other again, then sighed. Alya replied, “Sorry Sunshine, but Saturday Nino and I have a date.”

Adrien turned hopeful eyes on Marinette, and Alya frowned. Before he could say anything, she added, “And Marinette, don’t you have to help your parents with that big order?”

“Oh… yeah…” Marinette said weakly, nodding. She felt terrible about the lie, but she really just couldn’t go on another date with Adrien and Kagami. There was a difference between wanting your love to be happy even if it was with someone else, and being forced to have a front row seat for it.

Nino swallowed a bit nervously, but clapped a friendly hand on Adrien’s shoulder and suggested, “Dude, it’s no big deal. I mean, Kagami is your girlfriend, so why don’t you spend some time with her. I mean, you don’t need your friends there to spend time with your girlfriend, the person you’re supposed to enjoy spending time with _the most_ , right?”

“Yeah,” Alya added, a gleam in her eye Marinette couldn’t interpret. “Since Kagami is your girlfriend, it’s important for you to spend some time alone with her. Every relationship needs time for just the two of you, and I think Nino and I have probably crashed enough of your dates for a while.”

“But I want you there!” Adrien exclaimed, sounding a little bewildered. “It’s not crashing if I invited you.”

“Sure, dude, but maybe not to every single date.”

Alya smirked and asked, “I mean really, sunshine, have you actually been out on _any_ dates with just her yet?”

Adrien scratched his head and admitted softly, “No, we haven’t.”

“Why is that?” Alya asked curiously. “Don’t you want to spend time with her?”

“Of course!” Adrien insisted. “But I like spending time with you, too. I want to spend time with all of my friends!”

“But if she’s your girlfriend, she’d probably like some time alone with you,” Alya pointed out, gently steering Marinette down the stairs and out of the classroom. “You can tell us how it went on Monday. Have fun!”

They made their escape before Adrien could come up with a rebuttal, and walked home in silence while the wheels turned in Marinette’s head.

Waving goodbye to Nino, Alya and Marinette entered the bakery, said a quick hello to Sabine and Tom, and made their way up to Marinette’s room in the converted attic. Marinette set down the plate of goodies she’d grabbed and turned to confront Alya, hands on her hips. The red-head smiled at her innocently, polishing her glasses.

“Why are you avoiding hanging out with Adrien?” Marinette asked curiously. “I thought you and Nino really liked spending all that extra time with him now that he’s allowed to go out more with Kagami. When did that change?”

Alya splayed her hands out and refuted, “We do like hanging out with him. We _do not_ like going out on double dates with him and Kagami.”

“What’s wrong with Kagami?” Marinette demanded angrily, looking ready to defend her friend.

“Nothing!” Alya exclaimed, waving her hands to calm her friend down. “Nothing at all. It’s just… double dates with them are super awkward, and we really don’t like doing it. I think we’re enabling that relationship, and I decided to stop. If Adrien really likes Kagami, and I’m wrong, well, no harm done. We’ll give it a couple weeks; if they’re still going strong…” she sighed reluctantly, “I guess we’ll start back up again, though I am definitely cutting down on the frequency. Once a week is _plenty_ , believe me.”

“What do you mean, you’re enabling them?” Marinette asked, sounding confused. 

Alya smirked. “Girl, those two are soooo awkward. I feel like the only reason they’ve lasted this long without realizing how wrong they are for each other is because Nino and I have been on like, all of their dates. It’s harder to notice the awkward silences and stuff when we’re there to fill them. So, like I said… I’m not going to be a buffer anymore. I refuse. I think Adrien needs to go on a few dates with Kagami and figure out if he really likes spending time with just her. I can’t help but feel like he really wants to have a girlfriend who likes him, more than he specifically wants to date Kagami. So I’m testing my theory.”

Marinette grabbed the bridge of her nose and whined, “Alya, you can’t play with people’s relationships like that!”

Alya frowned at her and retorted, “Marinette, I know you just want Adrien to be happy, but I think he’s going to be much happier if he realizes the mistake he made now, before either of them get any more invested. Besides, it’s not unreasonable to expect that he would enjoy spending time alone with his girlfriend. If he really likes her and wants to date her, it shouldn’t be a big deal whether Nino and I are there or not – in fact, he should really want to spend some time alone with her, at least occasionally. Don’t you think it’s weird that he still doesn’t want to be alone with her? They’ve been dating for months; that should be enough to get over any kind of first date nerves.”

Marinette sighed and reluctantly agreed, “I guess. I just don’t want him to get hurt.”

Alya smiled at her kind friend and got up to give her a quick hug. “I know babe, and that’s why you’re my favorite. Now what movie are we watching to put off doing our homework?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just saying, if there was a divorce, Marinette would totally get Alya and Nino (because Alya)…


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya has an unpleasant realization about Lila, and has a chat with Ladybug.

The next afternoon, Alya wiped her brow and frowned at Nino after stopping her live stream. Ladybug and Chat had just ‘saved’ Lila again, and watching her stomp off without even a word to either of the superheroes stirred a sick feeling in Alya’s stomach. 

“Babe, how many times has Lila been Akumatized?” she asked slowly, rubbing a hand over her abdomen.

Nino made a thinking face, then shrugged casually. “No clue, dudette. A lot.”

Alya nodded, and Nino could see the gears turning behind her bright eyes as her face became more concerned. “I think…” she started, then stopped and looked down. Taking a deep breath after a minute, she looked up at Nino with more resolve and continued, “I think Lila might… want to be Akumatized.”

Nino’s eyes grew wide and his mouth hung open for a minute. “You think she’s working with Hawk Moth?”

Alya shrugged reluctantly. “I think, at the very least, she wouldn’t be sorry if he won.”

Nino frowned and responded, “I don’t know babe. I know you don’t like her, but that’s like, pretty heavy. What makes you think that?” 

“Well… she’s been Akumatized an awful lot. The only person I can think of who has been Akumatized more is Mr. Ramier, and he’s in a class all his own. She always seems mad afterwards, when they win, and back when I was talking to her, she kept claiming to be Ladybug’s best friend, but she was always making snide remarks about her and implying that she wasn’t as good as everyone thought. I think she really doesn’t like the superheroes at all, actually. And there’s been a couple times… she’s gotten in the way during fights with other Akumatized villains. At first, I thought she just had bad timing, or bad luck, but… it’s happened a few too many times for me to easily believe that anymore.”

“Still, though, it’s a leap to go from ‘she doesn’t like the heroes’ to ‘she’s working with Hawk Moth’,” Nino pointed out reasonably.

“You’re right,” Alya nodded decisively. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned recently, it’s that we need proof.”

Nino chuckled a bit nervously. “How are you going to get proof?” He asked, not excited about where this was going.

Alya grinned. “I have some ideas.”

Monday after school, Alya tracked Alix down in the art room, which was luckily otherwise empty. Shutting the door, she raised a brow at Alix. “We need to talk.”

“What’s up, Césaire?” Alix asked, short pink hair bouncing as she turned quickly from where she was spraying green paint at a large canvas in the front of the classroom.

“I need you to be my secondary photographer for Akuma battles.”

“No,” Alix replied with no hesitation.

“Because we’re going to prove that Lila is working with Hawk Moth.”

Alix’s mouth hung open for a moment, then she shut it as thoughts started flashing behind her eyes, probably going through the same ideas Alya had run by Nino earlier. She started nodding after a minute, eyes lighting up as anger flashed across her face. “Holy shit, you might be right!”

“I know, right? I can’t believe I didn’t notice it earlier…”

“How do we get the bitch?”

Alya held out her hand for Alix’s phone. “I can’t do it, because it would be too noticeable if I started followed Lila during battles. I need you to come with me, and pretend to take pictures, but really, I need you to be on the lookout for her. If you see her, you follow her, and film everything. It’s so obvious that she doesn’t like LB and Chat, she’s been Akumatized so many times, and a few times I’m almost sure she’s interfered with them as a civilian… but I don’t have proof. We need proof!”

Alix grinned again. “Césaire, I like where you’re going with this, but you’re not thinking big enough.”

Alya blinked at her, and Alix smirked. “We’re going to need a few more people for this…”

They had a chance to try out the system a few minutes later, when Mr. Ramier got Akumatized yet again. He was over at the Torcadéro, so they got there in time to watch the end of the battle and for Alix to practice being Alya’s ‘second’. Alya made a quick intro on the live stream as they were running towards the battle, figuring the more people who knew Alix had a supposedly legit reason to be following her around during Akuma battles, the better. 

When Ladybug and Chat had broken the bird whistle and Ladybug had purified the butterfly, Alya flagged her down while Chat patted Mr. Ramier on the shoulder. Ladybug stuck her fist out to Chat quickly for their traditional ‘pound it!’ and strolled over to Alya unhurriedly. Alix took off after waving to both the heroes and Alya. Battles with Mr. Pigeon were so run-of-the-mill at this point that other reporters rarely bothered to show up, so Alya had Ladybug all to herself.

She smiled at Ladybug and greeted her casually. “Hey LB! Nice job!”

Ladybug smiled and thanked her. She had a few minutes, since she hadn’t had to use her lucky charm to actually defeat Mr. Pigeon, so her earrings weren’t beeping at her yet. “What’s up, Alya?” she asked curiously.

“I wanted to ask you something. Off the record, I promise.”

Ladybug nodded, watching Alya turn her phone off and pocket it.

“Let me begin by saying, this is coming from a place of friendship, not just from the selfish hope that my OTP will finally happen,” Alya started, and Ladybug groaned. Alya waved her hands and continued quickly. “No really, though, I just want to know, have you really never even considered giving Chat a chance? I know he’s kind of silly, but he has a total romantic side, he seems like a really good guy, and he’s crazy about you. As someone who is currently dating someone who’s crazy about me… I can attest, it pretty much rocks.”

Ladybug sighed, and answered, “Alya, you can’t control who you love. I don’t love Chat.”

Alya frowned at her and answered, “LB, if that were really true, you shouldn’t be able to use a true love’s kiss to wake him up or snap him out of it when he’s been spelled. It shouldn’t work.”

Ladybug spread her hands and answered, “I know! I don’t really understand why it works, honestly.”

“Maybe because you have more feelings for him that you realize? You guys are awfully touchy-feely and flirty for people who claim not to like each other…”

“Chat has flirted with you, too,” Ladybug pointed out neutrally, smirking at her.

“Yeah, but not the way he flirts with you,” Alya responded, unimpressed. “And you tease him back. If you really didn’t like it, I know you could get him to stop. He’s a little pushy, but he’d listen if you put your foot down and made it clear you wanted him to stop flirting and teasing you.”

Ladybug blushed and looked away. “It doesn’t mean anything, it’s how he relieves the tension and helps us both not freak out.”

Alya shrugged. “Maybe, but you know he loves you.”

Ladybug frowned at her. “Chat doesn’t feel that way anymore. He has a girlfriend now.”

Alya rolled her eyes. “And yet he used true love’s kiss less than a week ago on you. Clearly, whatever he’s doing in his personal life, he still cares about you. Feelings like that don’t just go away.”

Ladybug sighed as her earrings started beeping. “Maybe not, but he’s trying to move on, and I don’t love him.”

Alya reached out and grabbed Ladybug’s hand, dismissing the odd feeling of familiarity that washed over her at the touch. “Please,” she said gently, “I know it’s none of my business, but you do so much for Paris, and I want you to be happy. I think anyone who can share true love’s kiss with you is someone special, and at least deserves a chance. I think if you let him go, you’d be missing out on something that could be amazing. Just think about it, okay?”

Ladybug nodded reluctantly. “Okay, Alya, I’ll think about it, but it won’t change anything.” She turned away and saluted as her yo-yo shot out. “Bug out!” 


End file.
